It is known to construct structures of embankment mixed with a hydraulic binder, material which is currently designated by the term roller-compacted concrete.
For example, hydraulic structures such as dams or retaining dykes are constructed with this material.
The hydraulic binder may be cement, lime, blast furnace slag, ashes rejected from thermal stations, pozzuolana, etc. . . or mixtures of these materials in any proportions.
After the hydraulic binder has hardened, this material presents good mechanical qualities, and in particular a good cohesion which makes it possible to produce very steep slopes, much steeper than the natural slope of the non-bound embankment, and substantially to reduce the volume of the structures.
The structures of embankment enriched with a hydraulic binder are constructed in successive layers which are compacted by a heavy compactor which moves over each layer.
The problem to be solved is the treatment of the slope.
The slope may be allowed to take its natural inclination without compacting it. However, in that case, the slope is not watertight and is not suitable for forming the face of a hydraulic structure in contact with water. Neither is such a slope suitable for the other face of the structure which is eroded by rain water.
Up to the present time, the slopes are coated with prefabricated concrete elements or by casting behind a shuttering or in a sliding form a wall of concrete forming a protective skin which responds to the technical and aesthetic requirements of the structure.
Such solutions are expensive.
It is an object of the present invention to provide means for compacting the slopes of the successive sections of a structure of embankment enriched with a hydraulic binder in order to obtain a closed wall, able to have an inclination greater than that of the natural slope and even close to the vertical.
The compacting of an embankment slope which limits a layer of compacted material raises a problem in that the operation of compacting of the wall of the slope causes upward unpacking of the materials.
Furthermore, the upper edge of the slope before compacting of the slope is generally very irregular and such irregularity must be eliminated.
It is an object of the present invention to provide means for compacting the slopes of a structure of embankment mixed with a hydraulic binder without unpacking the materials located in the volume defined by the slope and the horizontal surface of each layer and which make it possible to obtain a regular upper edge of the slope.
Manufacture of structures composed of successive horizontal layers of compacted material raises the problem of compacting of the horizontal surface located near the edge of the slope, since the compacting machines cannot roll too close to the slope without danger.
Another object of the present invention is to provide means for compacting the slopes which solve this difficulty.
The processes according to the invention for constructing structures of a compacted material composed of embankment mixed with a hydraulic binder comprise, in known manner, the following operations: spreading successive layers of material, levelling each layer and compacting it by means of a vibrating roller which rolls on said layer.